When It All Burns Down
by OfTinMenAndPaperHearts
Summary: What if Age of Ultron was after season 4? After the Darkhold, Robbie just wants to be a normal guy & take care of Gabe, but everything changes when the news about Sokovia breaks. Knowing Daisy, she's right in the middle of it./The Avengers can't destroy the falling city and the only way to avoid extinction is if Daisy slows it down from below. But she'll never survive alone.


**Songfic for Red's Let It Burn. Takes place post season 4 of AoS but also during the events of Age of Ultron. Not quite a crossover—the Avengers side of things will probably just be mentioned instead of having Avengers show up.**

 **Feel free to skip the next few paragraphs; it's basically just me ranting about Age of Ultron.**

 **I have so many issues with the movie that this story is partly to replace some of the gigantic plot holes in the climax of that movie. The writers wholly ignored physics, and I direct you all to the Nerdist article about the science of the film for some of the many ways the "science" made no sense.**

 **But it wasn't just the fact that the writers ignored reality, it ignored the rules set up by its own narrative. They keep reiterating that vibranium is unbreakable and then they have Thor break the vibranium-encased power source that's propelling the city upward with no explanation as to how, just some throwaway line from Tony that Thor can break it with his hammer (after the same movie chose to showcase Thor hitting Cap's shield with his hammer to produce nothing but a shockwave that knocks some people down).**

 **And does anyone else get super annoyed whenever the MCU refers to the events of Age of Ultron as "when Sokovia fell out of the sky"? It bugs me so much. 'Sokovia' (the country) definitely didn't fall, and not even the whole capital city (called 'Novi Grad' according to the MCU wiki but is definitely NOT the whole country) fell. If you look at the scene of the city rising, it's pretty obvious that it was just a small portion of the city (which, btw, is not circular, making it physically impossible for that church to be in the exact center. That line about the geometry of belief sounded nice and all, but the city is nestled in the middle of a mountain range, it sprawls through the lowest, most level areas. It's like the writers and location scouts didn't even talk to each other).**

 **Then there's a) the lack of character development for the one guy they kill off in order to provide stakes, b) how easily the dude could have avoided that death (seriously, you're so fast you see bullets in slow motion, but the only way you can stop someone getting shot is to block them with your body? and btw, the exit wounds on the front of his body mean it definitely DIDN'T stop them), and c) that they used Wanda's powers to show a total nonsequitur literal trailer for upcoming movies in the middle this one (really, a vision of the future as it plays out across the cosmos complete with actual verbal exposition?- I guess they kinda-sorta-not-really retconned that this could happen in Ragnarok when Loki said: "I can't see into the future; I'm not a witch" but not really. It was stupid.), and d) ROBOTS SHOULD BE BETTER AT MATH! There's this little thing called terminal velocity, and it's why there was never any risk of Ultron's plan working.**

 **UGH, this movie drove me nuts.**

 **ANYWAYS, when I was listening to my Quakerider-themed playlist this song came on and after the line "it all crashed down," I immediately had this image in my head for the story. It's strange to write this way-my other stories started with things like a conversation I wanted them to have-but this one comes to me like a film in my head.**

 **It's surprisingly difficult to write a mind-movie into a cohesive narrative.**

 **This has been edited since the original posting though honestly, everything I write has been. I try not to wait too long between posts and there are always flaws I don't notice until weeks after posting it.**

 **5/15/18**

 **~2600 words (excluding my ranting)**

* * *

 **I watch the city burn  
** **These dreams like ashes float away  
** **Your voice I never heard  
** **Only silence**

 **Where were you when our hearts were bleeding  
** **Where were you when it all crashed down  
** **Never thought that you'd deceive me  
** **Where are you now?**

* * *

 **Chapter One: Only Silence**

Robbie wiped the grime from his hands with a rag, watching fresh streaks across the fabric replace the washed-out stains. It had been a long day at the garage with an emergency smoking-engine walk-in in the morning backing up work for the rest of the day. Having stayed late to finish, Robbie gratefully washed up, bid Canelo good night, and headed for the Charger, admiring the way his car looked in the golden-hour light. He was almost tempted to take a picture but grinned to himself, chuckling at his foolishness. He'd lost his _celular_ the day before anyway.

As strange as it was to be back here after everything that went down with tío and the Darkhold, there was something wistfully comfortable about being back; even the smell of the garage, with its fumes that turned noxious in the LA heat, held a comforting nostalgia. Now, instead of extra-dimensional robots, the worst problem he had was that he'd forgotten his phone in Mrs. Serrano's car as he'd installed her new radio.

Tempting as Coulson's offer to keep working with SHIELD had been, Gabe deserved a better life than Robbie could provide if he continued to go out as the Rider. Even working for the good guys held too big a risk. Spending so much time away put things in perspective, and as long as Robbie was active as the Rider, Gabe could never have a normal life. He couldn't take the devil out of his body, but he _could_ keep it restrained. Nowadays, if he came across a crime in progress, he'd do what he could to stop it—but no powers, no skeleton on fire...

No killing.

Daisy was right; murdering people while possessed and on fire was no way to fly under the radar. It had only been a matter of time before someone found out who he was, and if anyone else did, Gabe would be in danger. Forget cops storming the house or aggressive reporters ruining his life; the Rider had made _enemies_. Powerful ones. Robbie's apparent invincibility only put his little brother in more danger—who else would they hurt when they realized they couldn't hurt Him?

Besides, SHIELD was a team for heroes, and that sure as hell wasn't him.

* * *

Daisy quickly grabbed the black canvas mesh that lined the cargo bay, trying to keep hold of both her phone and her balance as sudden turbulence rocked the Zephyr. Waiting for the call to go through, she flashed a brief sympathetic smile at a passing agent who'd also stumbled, then frowned to herself as it went straight to voicemail. Daisy hung up, worried despite herself. It wasn't like Robbie was likely in any trouble, but something like _this;_ it made every friend you couldn't contact seem like a bad omen.

Daisy was far from the Iron Man fangirl she'd once been, but this was a low of _epic_ proportions. Some misguided attempt to protect the world from another alien invasion had gone _staggeringly_ wrong and the Avengers now had to defend an entire city under attack by evil frickin' robots (like she hadn't had enough of _them_ this past year) made of top-of-the-line Stark tech. And to make matters worse, rumor was that 'Ultron' _—stupid name_. _Honestly, what was Stark expecting when he gave it a name that practically screamed 'world domination'?—_ was planning some sort of extinction of life on Earth, and seismic sensors were being tripped all around the country.

As the plane settled, Daisy let go of the canvas mesh with a sigh. She had passed the two months since the end of the AIDA debacle cleaning up the mess that crazy robot-witch had made of SHIELD's reputation. She and the team had spent the whole first month out of the Framework on conference calls with various government entities, making their case and showing the LMDs left behind until they were finally taken off the Most Wanted list and assured that they at least wouldn't be arrested on sight.

And _that_ was just their standing with the government; even after a month of exposés and press conferences (and leaked footage of a roomful of creep-ass Daisy-bots) public opinion still saw SHIELD as grossly incompetent. At _best_.

Some had been convinced that SHIELD wasn't responsible, but most people still thought they were guilty of everything that AIDA had framed them (and Daisy in particular) for—Talbot's shooting and Mace's death included.

And then _this_ was SHIELD's first real mission off-base: rescuing a city full of people from an _army_ of killer robots.

At least this time, they couldn't pass as human.

"How's Robbie?"

Snapping out of her reverie, Daisy whirled around to find Fitzsimmons close behind her. Seeing there was no use in pretending she'd been calling someone else, with an internal groan, she didn't bother denying it. "Don't know," she said, briefly looking back at the screen as she put it in her pocket. "He didn't answer."

Simmons put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Everything should have hit the news by now. I'm sure he's just on the phone with Gabe."

"Maybe," she said, struggling to keep the disappointment from her voice, but honestly, what was she supposed to feel when someone said, _'If you need me, just call,'_ and then didn't even answer his phone? "It just went straight to voicemail; didn't even ring."

Fitz shrugged. "Maybe he set it on fire."

Jemma looked at her other half like he'd just grown a second head.

Nonplussed, Daisy let the non sequitur suggestion lift her heavy mood. "Yeah," she said with a wry smile, "'cause a phone is a perfect vehicle for hellfire."

Whatever Fitz's reply might have been, a loud burst of static from the intercom speaker silenced them all as they waited anxiously for news from the frontlines.

When Coulson's solemn voice came over the intercom, everyone onboard stopped in place, a heavy hush falling over the plane.

"We just got word from Fury. It seems the Avengers were right.

"Ultron's goal is an extinction event in the way of the dinosaurs, and it seems he's using the capital city of Sokovia as his meteor.

 _Oh, god._

Daisy's body began to move before her mind even finished processing the news, a sick feeling settling in her stomach as she ran to the bridge, the doorways and agents she passed just a blur. _An entire city._

"As we speak, most of Novi Grad is tearing away from the ground around it; by the time we arrive, it will pose a significant threat. The Avengers have a plan to blow it up before it falls back down to earth, but it's up to us to evacuate that rising city.

"The rescue mission starts as soon as we arrive."

She found Coulson standing at the holotable with Mack and May watching the projection of the city in horror. Fitzsimmons and Yo-Yo weren't far behind, arriving just moments later. Together, they stared at the hologram in shock, horrified by the image before them. The entire city wasn't rising after all, but a substantial portion of it was—and the crumbling rocks and buildings along the outer edge of Ultron's 'meteor' were falling directly onto the rest of the city.

"Sir," Daisy said, trying not to retch as what looked like an apartment building tumbled off the side of the rock and crushed a structure below, "how far are we out?"

"Thirty minutes. Minimum." May's voice was hard.

"The evacuation started the better part of an hour ago," Coulson added, "And we have two new Avengers on this one. Hill said one used some sort of mind-control to get people out. Without the panic that normally accompanies an evac, it actually went pretty smoothly. There are likely a few people left on the ground, but the outskirts of the city were the first to get out. The city center—the part that's airborne—that's the main area with people trapped."

Coulson gripped the back of a chair so tightly his knuckles turned white. "It kills me to say it, but we're not in a position to help anyone still on the ground. It would take time that we don't have just to _find_ them. All we can do is hope they escape while we work to stop Ultron from ending life as we know it." He let out a world-weary sigh before continuing.

"Yo-Yo, you're on rescue. Take the Quinjet to one of the helicarriers; they'll start ascending soon. Since you snap back, you'll be most useful at getting people onto the Boats." She nodded curtly, shared a quiet moment with Mack, and headed for the Quinjet. Coulson turned back to address the group, his voice full of resigned frustration. "Until we get closer, all we can do is coordinate the evacuation from here."

Collectively, they nodded. Daisy spoke first.

"What do you need?"

Watching the holotable from her seat, a brief sense of relief flitted through Daisy as the stalled highway traffic started to move again, diverting like a river around what must have been a broken-down car.

As the carriers broke off to head upward and the Zephyr began its descent to a field safely outside the predicted fall-zone, the call tone she was listening to ceased, giving way to yet another automated message and Daisy hung up, looking for the next number she could call.

Having already hacked the traffic systems of the city and its suburbs to get people out faster, Daisy had joined Mack and Coulson on more diplomatic pursuits—making sure the people evacuating actually had a place to _go_.

Ignoring the sounds of Fitzsimmons trying to figure out the probable impact radius and of May communicating with the helicarriers, they had eventually been able to confirm that the surrounding countries would open their borders to evacuees, but that was all the confirmation they could get—barely any of the calls they made were even picked up.

Daisy was consumed by how little help was available to the people trying to escape on the ground.

The lack of response from Sokovia's government she could understand—most of their government offices were currently floating in the sky—but the surrounding countries were also disturbingly silent. As the steady stream of cars and buses headed out to the highways, she had no option but to watch out of the corner of her eye and worry as traffic would inexplicably halt and the ringing of the phone switched to yet another outgoing message.

Daisy had gotten used to having such incredible power at her fingertips-even in the Framework, experiencing, once again, life before Terrigenesis, she'd still had her training as a fighter, and people to fight. For all that she didn't have her powers, she hadn't been powerless. But now, stuck on the Zephyr, too far removed from the problem to fight it, she couldn't help remembering the last time that had happened. The last time she hadn't had a choice, could only listen as someone else gave up his life...

Finally someone new answered their phone and Daisy just broke, asking some powerless government clerk why SHIELD seemed to be alone in trying to help, how rescue workers could be so hard to find.

His shaky, heavily accented voice came through the phone accompanied by a muffled clattering. "Have you not seen the news? An army of robots made by the iron man himself wants to _end_ _humanity_." He paused, continuing soberly, "After generations of war, we know how well Stark machines kill. How can any of us help against that? The world may be watching in fear that they may die, but those of us raised in these wars are _expecting_ to. Try to help all you want, but I'm going home to hold my children." The phone clattered as he hung up.

Daisy swore.

She couldn't blame him, but it didn't make helping any easier when everyone in the vicinity was as worried about their own lives as the civilians directly under the looming disaster.

Even if it dropped right now, the blast would reach a lot of people on the road out of the city—and the longer they waited, the bigger that blast radius got. Even if SHIELD saved everyone in the air and the Avengers blew up the city before impact, this time around, there were a lot of people who would not make it out alive.

"Coulson, I don't think anyone we're calling will help on the ground."

Putting her crescendoing panic to the side, she told the others what the clerk had said, and Coulson gave a world-weary sigh in response. "Fury mentioned something similar happening during the battle of New York.

"Literal hordes falling from the sky was not an easy way to find out aliens exist. New York was the most prepared city on the planet to be caught unawares by a devastating attack, but to have a paradigm shift in the belief of what's possible while the entire city was under siege…

"People were caught so off guard that whole branches of government didn't respond. No one knew who was supposed to be in charge—military or law enforcement, or what branch of either one. People on the ground did what they could, but there wasn't any coordinated effort. No one in the city had a moment to spare, and those removed enough from the fighting to even think of a plan of action just gave up; they couldn't see how anything done on the battleground would make a difference, no matter what reinforcements they sent." He brought his hand to his temple with a sigh. "It's probably the reason the World Security Council tried to nuke New York City before they even sent in the National Guard."

"But during New York, the world had an agency expressly to deal with things regular people couldn't fathom—" Fitz said, "SHIELD. _All_ of SHIELD. The whole international agency; thousands of agents, bases around the world…"

"Now it's just us," Jemma sighed, finishing the thought.

Daisy had been staring blankly at the wall as she listened, the knot in her stomach tightening. When she finally spoke, her voice was soft. "We are so screwed."

"You can't think like th–" Coulson's phone buzzed. "Fury."

He stood, walking a short distance away to take the call. Daisy didn't need to hear what Fury was saying; she could see on Coulson's face that it was something bad. A vein appeared in his forehead. _Really_ bad _._

Daisy stood, heart pounding, her breathing harsh. "I need a minute." She felt pinpricks at the corners of her eyes as she made her way past the others. Walking off the bridge, Daisy fumbled her way into the first empty room she could find, vaguely recognizing it as one of the vacant bunks as she shut the door behind her. She leaned against it and sank to the floor, trying to catch her breath. _We might not make it out this time._ Absent-mindedly, she took out her phone and pressed his number.

 _Please answer._

* * *

Robbie closed the door behind him, tossing his keys onto the table and grabbing the TV remote as he called for Gabe to come to the living room.

Robbie had only just pulled up to their block when the song on the radio was interrupted for an emergency message about the Avengers fighting a giant battle in some country he hadn't even known existed. Something had happened as he was pulling into the driveway that freaked the newscaster out so much his voice became hard to understand.

Robbie stared in shock at the live footage as a helicopter filmed a huge part of a city surrounded by growing fissures and... _glittering_. Gabe wheeled out of the kitchen, a plate on his lap.

"What?" His brother caught sight of the TV. "What the…"

A sense of dread coiled in the pit of Robbie's stomach as he realized the glittering lights flashing around the city was from light reflecting off robotic metal forms. If deadly robots were there, SHIELD wouldn't be far behind.

 _Daisy._

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed chapter one (why don't I ever get inspired to do one-shots? At least this one is limited by the lyrics for length).**

 **For my usual freakout about the show, OMG, GRAVITON!**

 **And was that preview they released of Daisy and Coulson on the plane the moment right before she angrily leaves the Quinjet and is caught on camera?! It looked like it, which made me so excited—clearly (from my story entirely based around this), I've done a lot of theorizing for what might have precipitated that moment.**

 **My current theory/hope is that Daisy gets off the plane and things play out like on the video, she goes to fight him, and right when she's almost forced to kill him, he turns to dust. It would be really anticlimactic for the season and I don't actually think it would ever happen, but I'm hoping for as minimal an effect on the team as possible. Plus, they might be able to bring Talbot back from wherever the people who got dusted went without bringing back Graviton since the gravitonium didn't bond to his soul or whatever.**

 **I really don't want him to die; he was such a good character and was so sweet and funny at the start of his part in this season. Pasdar portrayed him so well, walking the line of sweetness and sadness in his depiction of who he was post-injury, and then making me laugh out loud the next moment (which just brings you back to the sadness because he's a changed man, yes, but it's because he's a victim and his mind was taken from him, first by the bullet, then by Hydra all over again). It's a rare** _ **character**_ **(never mind villain) that can make me so conflicted.**


End file.
